COLGATE BRIGHT SMILES, BRIGHT FUTURES^® 

Greater NY Dental Meeting
200 West 41st Street Suite 1101
New York, NY 10036

Throughout the world, many children do not have access to basic dental care and lack the education needed to achieve optimal oral health. Colgate Bright Smiles, Bright Futures® reaches children around the world with free dental screenings and oral health education. This particular event was held at the Greater NY Dental Meeting in November of 2018. City Tech’s dental hygiene department participated in the event by assisting with toothbrushing stations, dental screenings, nutritional education and interactive entertainment centered around oral health education. I participated in this event at the “Brush, Rinse, Floss” song and dance station. As we met groups of children, we sang and danced to a song about brushing, flossing and rinsing and reinforced appropriate toothbrushing techniques using puppets and typodonts.

Dental Health Outreach Activity to Head Start Center

Family Head Start Child Care & Day Care
293 Neptune Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11235

Head Start is a free comprehensive program designed to foster the healthy development of young children from low-income families. The program also connects children to a health care source and provides vital support services to their families. Our public health class section visited a head start center in Brooklyn, NY several times during the course of the semester. The initial visit consisted of dental hygiene students being divided into groups of three to introduce themselves to a classroom of preschool-aged children. Within a 30-minute time frame, the students were to conduct a dental health education presentation. Our presentation consisted of showing a short cartoon video to the students about the importance of brushing, flossing and eating healthy. Then we showed the students our mask, gloves and glasses that we use in clinic when treating patients. To promote student engagement and ease any preexisting dental fears, we made the children laugh by dancing with the gloves and asking if the mask belonged on top of our head. Then we used puppets to teach the children how to brush their teeth.

Fluoride Varnish Program

Family Head Start Child Care & Day Care
293 Neptune Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11235

Head Start is a free comprehensive program designed to foster the healthy development of young children from low-income families. The program also connects children to a health care source and provides vital support services to their families. Our public health class section visited a head start center in Brooklyn, NY several times during the course of the semester. Dental caries is the most common childhood illness in the United States and it is a particular problem among children from families with low incomes. Fluoride varnish is a tool that can prevent dental caries. It has been found to be effective in preventing caries in primary and permanent teeth, especially among children at high risk for tooth decay. It is easy to apply and can be applied by oral health professionals as well as non-oral health professionals. The dental hygiene students visited this head start center three times to conduct intraoral dental screenings, provide referrals for further evaluation (if necessary) and provided fluoride varnish applications to the children. There was also a game station that featured categorizing health and unhealthy foods. The children received stickers when they completed the screening and visited the game station. I loved interacting with the children and spent the majority of the time at all three visits performing dental screenings and applying fluoride varnish.

CUNY Graduate Center Dental Screenings: April 2019

The Graduate Center, CUNY
365 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10016

Professor Haynes, RDH, MPH and Professor Alvarez, RDH, BA along with several freshman and senior students provided in excess of 60 dental screenings at the CUNY Graduate Center’s Wellness Festival on Tuesday, April 30th, 2019. CUNY students, faculty and staff were given extraoral and intraoral exams, personalized oral health care recommendations and education and were invited to visit City Tech’s dental hygiene clinic for a free dental cleaning. This screening event was part of an ongoing IRB-approved research project that is geared towards increasing and promoting awareness of our dental hygiene clinic and the services that we provide to the public.

View the invitation and a brief summary of the event here:

CUNY Graduate Center Dental Screenings: May 2018

The Graduate Center, CUNY
365 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10016

Professor Davide, RDH, MS, MSEd and Professor Rivera, RDH, MSDH along with several freshman students provided in excess of 50 dental screenings at the CUNY Graduate Center’s Wellness Festival on Tuesday, May 1st, 2018. CUNY students, faculty and staff were given extraoral and intraoral exams, personalized oral health care recommendations and education and were invited to visit City Tech’s dental hygiene clinic for a free dental cleaning. As a result of collecting the information through a registration form that was filled out by the attendees of the screening, I suggested to Professor Davide that the students who screened them reach out to them to schedule appointments at our clinic. This further developed into an IRB-approved research study in which the participants were then surveyed regarding their experience in our dental hygiene clinic and with our students and faculty.

View the invitation and a brief summary of the event here: :

Here is a summary of my experience volunteering at the CUNY Graduate Center Wellness Festival:

Read more here:

http://nycdha.org/noteworthy-news